Our Final Midterm Predictions—And Why the Polls May Be Wrong
Hosts Hayden Ludwig, Dan Curry, John Pearman, and Grace Riley break down why Trump and Vance are spending so much time in Texas, why Larry Sabato's crystal ball isn't what campaign professionals actually use, and how the left built a "permanent campaign" machine that turns out low-propensity voters year after year—and what conservatives are doing to catch up.
Then it's the lightning round: Who wins the House? Who holds the Senate? The panel splits on the margins, and one of them is betting against everyone else just to be contrary.
From there, the conversation turns to the polls themselves: the Wedgewood fake-polling scandal that fooled major outlets and aggregators, why early voting and public polling don't mix, why Polymarket odds aren't polls, and the long list of races where Republicans beat their polling by wide margins. Plus: 20,000 possibly non-citizen ballots in California, a box of ballots that turned up at a left-wing group in Maryland, how VoteRef is opening up voter rolls to the public, and whether the Trump administration's late push to check voter rolls against federal citizenship data can work in future cycles.
Bottom line: don't let the polls decide your vote. Get out and vote.
🔗 LINKS
[Restoration News]
Look up your voter registration at [VoteRef]
[Restoring America with Grace Reilly]
23 Oct 2026
The Socialized Medicine Secret Doctors Won’t Say Out Loud
Pay cash or die. John Pearman says the demand from patients in socialized-medicine countries was “mind blowing.”
With less than two weeks until the midterms, host Hayden Ludwig and the Restoration of America team take on the Democrats’ “affordability” message, and explain why prosperity, not socialism, is what voters actually want.
Plus, Grace Riley takes us behind the scenes of her wild 24-hour news run on Newsmax, NTD and Fox News.
IN THIS EPISODE:
• The socialized medicine secret most of the medical field won’t say out loud
• Hakeem Jeffries’ affordability plan: ending tariffs, reversing Medicaid cuts and restoring Obamacare tax credits
• Dan on watching his family’s health insurance costs double when Obamacare took effect
• Affordability vs. prosperity: Hayden’s three points for Republicans
• Wealth can be created, and why Democrats treat the economy like a pie to be sliced
• Higher taxes mean more fraud: the money lost or stolen from federal programs every year
• John: Republicans have a communication problem, not a policy problem
• Dan: “affordability” is a Democrat buzzword, and only a growing economy can deliver more
• Has a socialist country ever fed its people?
• Speak Zoomer to Zoomers: how to sell timeless principles to Gen Z
• Why government can’t build nice things (with one exception: LaGuardia)
• Diesel prices, the Green New Deal, and Hayden’s take on the Iran war
• 24 hours in the life: Grace’s back-to-back TV hits, and how cable news really works behind the scenes
16 Oct 2026
Should America Have the Death Penalty? The Fort Hood Execution Reignites the Debate
Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan has been on death row since 2009. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth now says he’ll face a firing squad on December 3rd, at the same time and place as the massacre, and it may be live-streamed. Is this justice, or a step too far?
Host Hayden Ludwig and the Restoration of America team debate the death penalty from a Christian perspective, then turn to Ilhan Omar and the midterms.
IN THIS EPISODE:
• Nidal Hasan’s firing squad execution: the first U.S. military execution since 1961
• Is there a biblical case for the death penalty? Romans 12–13 on private vengeance vs. public justice
• Cardinal Bernardin’s “consistent ethic of life”
• Justice delayed: the 12–15 years between a crime and an execution
• Charlie Kirk on capital punishment in principle vs. in practice
• Allie Beth Stuckey’s biblical case for the death penalty
• Should executions ever be public or live-streamed?
• The panel’s final vote on the death penalty: 3–1
• The DHS investigation into Ilhan Omar’s immigration history
• Will the Omar raid hurt Republican momentum in Minnesota?
• Midterm update: polling, early turnout and the 2026 Senate map
• Is Gen Z lost to the left? Why Zoomers don’t fit left vs. right
• Vote principles, not candidates
HOSTS
Hayden Ludwig, Host
Grace Riley, Host of Restoring America
Dan Curry, Chief Strategy Officer and Publisher of First Right
John Pearman, Legal Counsel, Restoration of America
STAY CONNECTED
📰 https://restoration-news.com (https://restoration-news.com)
📬 First Right Newsletter (free, Monday–Friday)
🎙️ Restoring America with Grace Riley
Reach and audience
Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.
Apple Podcasts (US)
5.0 / 5
1 ratings
Contact Restoration Spotlight
Guest appearances
Books guests
Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.
Host of Restoration Spotlight?
Claim your podcast to manage its listing and keep your show details accurate.
Pod Engine is an independent podcast discovery and analytics service and is not affiliated with or endorsed by this podcast. Artwork and show content belong to their owners. Full legal notice.
Explore this show Podcast research with Pod Engine